Men and women of Roman Herculaneum had different diets, new research shows
Researchers — led by the University of York’s BioArCh team — developed a new approach to analyse amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, from 17 adult skeletons found in the aftermath of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. By measuring the isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in the bone amino acids, the researchers […]
Mobile alert app for missing people with dementia
Researchers are working with community leaders to develop a mobile alert app to help locate missing people with dementia. Noelannah Neubauer, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Waterloo’s School of Public Health Sciences, said “Community ASAP” is aimed at addressing a gap in available tools when it comes to alerts for missing older adults […]
Janus graphene opens doors to sustainable sodium-ion batteries
In the search for sustainable energy storage, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, present a new concept to fabricate high-performance electrode materials for sodium batteries. It is based on a novel type of graphene to store one of the world’s most common and cheap metal ions — sodium. The results show that the capacity […]
Large genetic analysis identifies numerous gene variants linked with differences in food intake
A team of researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), and other institutions have identified more than two dozen genetic regions that may affect individuals’ food intake. The investigators hope that the discovery, which is described in Nature Human Behaviour, will point to new treatment strategies to curb the […]
Pecan-enriched diet shown to reduce cholesterol: People at risk for cardiovascular disease showed improvements
While the proper pronunciation of pecan remains a subject of debate, University of Georgia researchers have shown the tree nut can dramatically improve a person’s cholesterol levels. Participants at risk for cardiovascular disease who ate pecans during an eight-week intervention showed significant improvements in total cholesterol, triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad” cholesterol, in […]
Metasurfaces control polarized light at will: New research unlocks the hidden potential of metasurfaces
For years, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have engineered metasurfaces to manipulate light based on its polarization state. That research has contributed to advances in polarization technology — but metasurface technology has proven more powerful than even the researchers themselves realized. Now, researchers have uncovered hidden […]
Climate change will transform cooling effects of volcanic eruptions
Researchers have shown that human-caused climate change will have important consequences for how volcanic gases interact with the atmosphere. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and the UK Met Office, say that large-magnitude eruptions will have greater effects as the climate continues to warm. However, the cooling effects of small- and medium-sized eruptions could […]
Study identifies molecule that stimulates muscle-building in humans
In a randomized control study of 10 healthy young men, researchers compared how consuming the single amino acid leucine or its two-molecule equivalent, dileucine, influenced muscle-building and breakdown. They found that dileucine boosts the metabolic processes that drive muscle growth 42% more than free leucine does. They report their findings in the Journal of Applied […]
A microRNA network is the putative mediator of reductive stress in the heart: Understanding how reductive stress is controlled may help personalize treatment of heart failure patients, leading to better outcomes
Last year, University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers reported that reductive stress — an imbalance in the normal oxidation/reduction homeostasis — caused pathological changes associated with heart failure in a mouse model. This was a follow-up to their 2018 clinical study that about one in six heart failure patients shows reductive stress. Now, in the […]
Common weight-loss drug successfully targets fat that can endanger heart health
Researchers at UT Southwestern announced successful results of a clinical trial for a commonly prescribed weight-loss drug called liraglutide. In adults who are overweight or have obesity combined with high cardiovascular risk, once-daily liraglutide combined with lifestyle interventions significantly lowered two types of fat that have been associated with risk to heart health: visceral fat […]